Gifted Children and Language Development

In most of the cases language and speech development in gifted children takes place early as compared to normal children. Read about language development and common characteristics of advanced language abilities in gifted children. Nurturing and raising a gifted child can be quite a challenge. There is no set of rules to guide parents on how to handle a gifted child. The most important thing that

In most of
the cases language and speech development in gifted children takes place early
as compared to normal children. Read about language development and common
characteristics of advanced language abilities in gifted children.

Nurturing and raising a gifted child can be
quite a challenge. There is no set of rules to guide parents on how to handle a
gifted child. The most important thing that parents of a gifted child can do is
to spend a lot of time with the child and get to know of her special interests.
Parents must be aware of the childâ€™s subject of interest and encourage her by
providing the right kind of support.

Children gifted in specific subjects such
as art, nature, music, and sports need opportunities to explore the particular
subject in depth. Stimulation from parents and their support is absolutely
essential for the child to develop her talent.
Children learn from their parents first. Therefore in the initial years parents
can help a child identify her personal interest by reading and talking about
varied subjects.

Advanced Language Ability in Gifted Children

Advanced language ability which is one of
the characteristics that many gifted
children possess. Such children achieve milestones
pertaining to language much faster than normal children of their age. Children
gifted with advanced language ability tend to talk earlier, have larger
vocabularies, and use longer sentences as compared to their peers.

Characteristics of Language Abilities in Gifted Children

Have a quick look at characteristics of
language abilities in gifted children.

1.
Talking Early

Majority of children utter the first words
of their life at around one year of age. Gifted children often start speaking
as soon as they turn nine months old. However, not all gifted children start
talking early. Some are in fact late talkers and start
talking only after they are two years old or even much later. Such later
talkers sometimes skip over the standard stages of language development. For
example they may directly start speaking in full sentences instead of uttering
words initially. It is important to understand that irrespective of whether a child
is a late talker or an early one she may be gifted.

2. Advanced
Vocabulary

Gifted children have an advanced
vocabulary. Such children will be ahead of their peers in two aspects- the
number and types of words that the child uses.

A normal two year old child may have a vocabulary of 150-300.Gifted children on the other hand have
knowledge of over 100 words by the time they are eighteen months old. The types
of words a gifted child has in her vocabulary will also be different from that
of her peers. The first words which any child learns will be nouns like mama,
daddy, dog, ball, bird, etc. Thereafter, the child will pick up simple verbs
like want, go, see, give. Gifted children in this second stage have the ability
to use connecting words like such as and or even, because etc. By the age of
three the vocabulary of gifted children far exceeds that of their peers.

3.
Sentence Structures

A child with gifted language ability will
be able to speak full sentences by the time she is two years old. By the time
they turn three years of age the language of such children may resemble that of
an adult. Normally, the child will be in a position to converse well and carry
on full conversations with adults.

Majority of gifted children have
extraordinary language abilities. The range of language development however
need not necessarily be the same for all gifted children. In fact it may vary
from one gifted child to another. It is important to remember that there are
also some gifted children who may not possess special language ability. This
does not imply that the child is not gifted.

What are the remarkable language abilities
in gifted children? How to enhance the language abilities in gifted children?
What is the difference between language development in normal and gifted children?
Discuss
here.

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